No one was hurt after a fire tore through a storage unit in Southwest Cedar Rapids late Tuesday night, leaving one unit heavily damaged and sending smoke into others. The Cedar Rapids Fire Department responded to the 2800 block of 16th Avenue SW at 11:36 p.m., where crews found heavy flames and smoke coming from the unit.
The fire moved fast enough that firefighters had to force open a neighboring unit to keep it from spreading farther. Crews put out the blaze, and the renter was on the scene while there was nobody inside the unit when firefighters arrived. One unit suffered heavy fire damage, and other units were left with smoke damage.
That leaves the cause as the unanswered part of the night. The Cedar Rapids Fire Department said the fire is under investigation, and for now the damage is limited to property rather than people, even as nearby storage units were caught in the aftermath.
